February 1958

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Features

The Mortality of Men and Women

The tendency of women to live longer than men is increasing. The study of differences in the death rates of the sexes may hold clues to the prevention and treatment of many diseases

By Amram Scheinfeld

Strong Magnetic Fields

Physicists are building electromagnets whose fields compare with TNT in their concentration of energy. The resulting forces can explode the massive metal coils which produce them

By Harold P. Furth, Morton A. Levine and Ralph W. Waniek

The Metabolism of Ruminants

How is a cow able to digest the tough cellulose of plants? It does so with the help of four stomachs and microorganisms which both break down its food and provide it with vitamins

By Terence A. Rogers

Ancient Temperatures

The ratio of the oxygen isotopes in a fossil shell reflects the temperature of the water in which the shell grew. This "thermometer" is now used to study the climate of the past

By Cesare Emiliani

The Juvenile Hormone

The larva of an insect makes a hormone which keeps it from changing into a pupa until it has reached its full growth. Recent experiments with this substance have produced both dwarf and giant adult insects

By Carroll M. Williams

The Discovery of Fission

In 1939 Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann announced that uranium nuclei "burst" when they are bombarded with neutrons. How they came to this conclusion is a classic example of the nature of science

By Otto Hahn

Ballistocardiography

When the heart ejects blood, it recoils and shakes the whole body. Similar vibrations are caused by the impact of the blood. Records of these vibrations may have experimental and clinical usefulness

By H. W. Lewis

Prehistoric Man in the Grand Canyon

In an oasis at the bottom of the Canyon live the Havasupai Indians, who have now been linked to a vanished people who settled the surrounding plateau in the seventh century A.D.

By Douglas W. Schwartz

Departments

50 and 100 Years Ago: February 1958

Science and the Citizen: February 1958

Letters

Letters to the Editors, February 1958

Recommended

Books

Mathematical Recreation

Mathematical Games

Amateur Scientist

The Amateur Scientist

Departments

The Authors

Bibliography

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